{{Linguistic_typology_topics The syntactic pivot is the

verb argument In linguistics, an argument is an expression that helps complete the meaning of a predicate, the latter referring in this context to a main verb and its auxiliaries. In this regard, the '' complement'' is a closely related concept. Most predicate ...

around which sentences "revolve" in a given

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

. This usually means the following: *If the

verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...

has more than zero arguments, then one argument is the syntactic pivot. *If the verb agrees with at least one of its arguments, then it agrees with the syntactic pivot. *In coordinated propositions, in languages where an argument can be left out, the omitted argument is the syntactic pivot. The first two characteristics have to do with simple

morphosyntax In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, including the principles by which they are formed, and how they relate to one another within a language. Most approaches to morphology investigate the structure of words in terms of morphemes, wh ...

, and from them, it is quite obvious the syntactic pivot in English (and most other European languages) is called the subject. An English verb cannot lack a subject (even in the

imperative mood The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request. The imperative mood is used to demand or require that an action be performed. It is usually found only in the present tense, second person. They are sometimes called ' ...

, the subject is implied to be "you" and is not ambiguous or unspecified) and cannot have just a direct

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...

and no subject; and (at least in the present tense, and for the verb ''to be'') it agrees partially with the subject. The third point deserves an explanation. Consider the following sentence: :I shot the deer and killed it. There are two coordinated propositions, and the second proposition lacks an explicit subject, but since the subject is the syntactic pivot, the second proposition is assumed to have the same subject as the first one. One cannot do so with a direct object (in English). The result would be ungrammatical or have a different meaning: :*I shot the deer and I killed. The syntactic pivot is a feature of the

morphosyntactic alignment In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the grammatical relationship between arguments—specifically, between the two arguments (in English, subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument of ...

of the language. In nominative–accusative languages, the syntactic pivot is the so-called "subject" (the argument marked with the

nominative case In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants ...

). In ergative–absolutive languages, the syntactic pivot may be the argument marked with the

absolutive case In grammar, the absolutive case ( abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominativ ...

but not always so since ergative languages are often not "pure" and show a mixed behaviour (they can have ergative morphology and accusative syntax). Languages with a

passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing ...

construction may resort to it to allow the default syntactic pivot to shift its semantic role (from agent to patient) in a coordinated proposition: :He worked hard and was awarded a prize.

Bibliography

* Anderson, Stephen. (1976). On the notion of subject in ergative languages. In C. Li. (Ed.), ''Subject and topic'' (pp. 1–24). New York: Academic Press. * Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). ''Ergativity''. Cambridge University Press. * Foley, William; & Van Valin, Robert. (1984). ''Functional syntax and universal grammar''. Cambridge University Press. * Plank, Frans. (Ed.). (1979). ''Ergativity: Towards a theory of grammatical relations''. London: Academic Press. Syntax